Coiler furnaces have long been utilized with reversing hot strip mills. In general, the coiler is provided with a housing in which a rotatable mandrel is mounted. The strip being worked upon is wound onto the mandrel after being passed through the mill rollers and along the roller table. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,761,983, 4,485,651, 4,442,690, 2,675,720 and 2,646,231 disclose these types of coiler furnaces. The strip of material being worked is fed onto a rotatable mandrel in the coiler through an opening in the bottom of the coiler housing. These known mills include diverters built into the roller tables to guide the strip onto the coiler mandrel. The diverters are adapted to be pivoted out of the roller table and into an opening provided in the housing. The openings are generally large. Consequently, much of the heat in the coiler furnaces is lost through the opening.
The rolls on the roller table beneath the opening are subjected to excessive amounts of heat which escapes from the interior of the coiler furnace. This exposure to extreme conditions reduces the working life of the exposed rolls and the entire roller table.
Soviet Reference No. 593,759 provides a reversing mill having closable shutters associated with each coiler furnace such that any required atmosphere may be easily maintained within a specific coiler furnace. The mill disclosed in the Soviet reference does not provide deflectors for easily guiding the strip into the coilers. The reversible mill of the Soviet reference operates without a conventional roller table and receives the strip directly from a guide roll adjacent the rollers. The mill disclosed in the Soviet reference does not provide for the easy transport or handling of the material to be worked upon.
The present invention avoids these disadvantages and difficulties by providing a hot strip mill with a coiler furnace which minimizes the energy losses from the coiler furnace, provides needed guidance of the strip, does not require a deflector to be incorporated into the roller table, and shields the roller table from excessive working conditions.